All Forum Posts by: Connie Brzowski

I absolutely do not accept cash. It's in the lease and I go over this with every tenant to make sure they know we're a No Cash business.

Last thing I want is someone's junkie brother getting the idea that we have a bunch of cash on hand around the first of the month.

I missed this thread last summer-- but Heather? If you're still around and reading this, it sounds like you're doing a great job and you have just the right attitude to get out of this and move on to building true family wealth.

Yes, we were in a very similiar place at one time. If you want, you can read about it over on my blog... won't go into the whole story again here :D

One little aside: When we were at our tightest (paying for bills with credit cards :oops: ) DH and I talked about cutting expenses. We'd cut back most everywhere except food and I knew we could save a couple of hundred every month by serving beans and rice, cutting out fresh veggies and fruit and buying in bulk. (We'd already cut out all chips, snack food and processed convenience foods long ago.) DH's reaction was a resounding, "NO FLIPPIN' WAY"

I'd forgotten that dh had grown up without enough to eat and spent most of his childhood hungry. He absolutely would not stand to see our 4 kids without all the fresh fruit and real meat they wanted (not hotdogs or Spam :mrgreen: )

Anyway, we made it just fine without canceling the cable or the veggies. The key was increasing our income, not lowering expenses. DH worked on his off-days from his primary job doing remodeling and odd jobs for friends and the families of friends, cleaning houses for a local real estate office and other not-so-fun stuff while I learned about business and real estate. Our kids are in college now and we're doing very well, thanks :wink:

Good job, hon :cool:

Having nothing constructive to add to this discussion, I thought you might enjoy this little tale--- :D

A couple of weeks ago, I'm over at a friends house out in the boonies. We're sitting around the fire in the driveway drinking coffee when I decide to regale the crowd with a story about our last Ikea trip. During this long-winded tale, I (unfortunately) use the phrase babies-with-blackberries. :roll:

After much explaining that these were not *actual* toddlers with *actual* berries, someone wants to know what these Blackberries are.... at which point I discover that I don't actually know. There follows another story about little boxes with buttons operated via thumb-power used for... uhm... stuff and junk (picture much hand waving and imaginary thumb-texting.) :cool:

As we're leaving, dear friend thanks me for explaining about Raspberries as now, she won't seem so uninformed when talking to her city relatives :mrgreen:

Only a few moments to post as the turkey will not put itself in the oven :tongue:


So-- abbreviated verson.... thankful for all the usual (family, etc.) and plan to tell them all this afternoon once that blasted bird is finished.

Specifically thankful this year for our band of rent houses that provide a cushion during tough economic times. Unbelievably thankful that all the kids came in last night for a relaxed day of baking and decorating.

Happy holidays to you all! :D

I agree also with the following distinctions~

*We always invest for cashflow, never speculation although one of our exit strategies might be to sell if we've miscalculated elsewhere so there must be enough meat on the bones to sell even in a down market if necessary

*During times of general appreciation, it can be harder to find properties that CF well-- so buying volume can be low and s-l-o-w. Doesn't mean it isn't *time* to buy, it just might take longer.

*Right now, bargains are plentiful, financing is not so those who can should scoop up as many, as fast as they can :cool: In that sense, *now* is the time to buy

*YMMV yadda, yadda :wink:

Yes indeedy, I believe you did~ :mrgreen:

And the author's been helping me with my entry and exit strategies :cool:

I have no idea what the bottom's going to look like, but we just had a SFH forclosure in a prime location come on the market, getting multiple offers over a weekend and *every single offer* fell through for lack of financing, one right after the other. They dropped the price another 5K and now there's no activity at all.

(Well... almost no activity :wink: )

I firmly believe it's time to buy-- and to keep buying all the way to the bottom.

Hello neighbor~

That program has a terrific reputation... best of luck to you :-)

Josh-- wonderful post and terrific questions.

Tell you the truth, I haven't been happy with a president since Reagan. So how irrelevant does that make me? Apparently, I just don't get 'it' (whatever that means... good grief I got tired of hearing that!)

What bothers me most are folks who see Obama as an Idea rather than a politician with a historical voting record and a very real agenda. So what will they do when the walls come crumbling down? Blame to past administration? Refuse to believe that Their Chosen One could ever do such a thing and blindly continue to support him?

That's the really frightening part-- I didn't see any Bush "true believers" and those who supported him for 8 years were mad as a wet cat when he pulled some of his shenanigans.

When you've got a radical extremist calling Obama the 'Messiah' and nobody flinches, you *know* its going to be a bumpy ride...

Mike--

Do you install the baseboard heaters yourself? Are they plug-in or hardwired? Can't say I've ever seen these locally, but I'm sure they're available online.

Thanks~!